Lewis Hamilton has landed his 100th career pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix tomorrow at the Circuit de Catalunya!
After an intense qualifying session, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will take off from P2 tomorrow, ahead of the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in P3.
Speaking after the session, Hamilton said; “I can’t believe we’re at 100 and it’s down to the men and women who are back at the factory who are continuously raising the bar and never giving up.
“The support that I have, it’s a dream for me to work with these guys and the journey that we have been on has been immense.
“Who would have thought at the end of 2012 when we made the decision to partner we would be qualifying at 100. So I feel very humble and very grateful.
“I’m ecstatic, like it’s my first.”
100 POLES! I can’t even begin to describe how this feels. I can’t thank the team and everyone back at the factory enough for everything they’ve done to help us secure this incredible milestone. I feel so humbled and very grateful. This feels like my first win all over again 🙌🏾💯 pic.twitter.com/KkCgShdhq2
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) May 8, 2021
Highlights
This afternoon’s qualifying session started after a 10-minute delay due to some track repairs at Turn Nine following a crash during the support race.
Mercedes have secured every pole at this circuit since 2012, and today was no different, with Hamilton landing prime position for tomorrow afternoon’s battle.
Q1
Williams and Haas landed on track straight away for Q1, with Nicholas Latifi setting the first lap time of 1:20.241 – quicker than the Haas duo.
With ten minutes to go, Bottas in the Mercedes was once again leading the pack with a 1:18.0s, followed by Red Bull’s Verstappen .085s behind, and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz .2s off the pace.
In the midst of a clean run for Lando Norris, the British driver came across traffic at the final sector, leaving him in P13 after the compromised run.
At this point, his Aussie teammate Daniel Ricciardo was up in sixth after a smoother run in his MCL35M – both men in papaya managed to avoid elimination from Q1, with Lando leading the pack when the clock ran out.
Q1 marked an end to the day for Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Haas’ Mick Schumacher, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, and the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin, who will all take off from P16-P20 respectively.
Q2
Bottas started off in Q2 with the fastest lap in 1:17.400 followed by Hamilton’s time of 1:17.632.
Verstappen very quickly crossed the line more than half a second clear of Bottas after a lap in 1:16.922.
Minutes in, Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in fifth in the lead Aston Martin.
With six minutes to go, the Ferraris slotted into fifth and sixth, with Fernando Alonso seventh in the Alpine.
Meanwhile, Hamilton in third was only safely through to Q3 by a third of a second, while Sergio Perez was 1.1s slower than his teammate, Verstappen, on the same tyres.
As Q2 came to a close, so too did the time of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, the second Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo, and Williams’ George Russel who will start tomorrow’s race from P11-P15 respectively.
Q3
In the final shootout this afternoon, Lewis Hamilton proved fastest in his W12, and so will be taking off from prime position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix – marking his 100th career pole!
Joining him on the front row will be Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in P2, as the competition heats up once again between the two drivers.
Quali result #SpanishGP 🇪🇸: HAM, Max P2 💪, BOT, LEC, OCO, SAI, RIC, Checo P8, NOR, ALO. #F1 pic.twitter.com/9s1MgA9YC3
— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) May 8, 2021
The second Mercedes will take off from P3, followed by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in fourth, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in fifth, and the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in sixth.
Closing out tomorrow’s top ten starting grid will be the Mclaren of Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, McLaren’s of Lando Norris, and Alpine’s Alonso in P7-P10 respectively.
Lights out at the Spanish Grand Prix is tomorrow at 2:00 pm Irish time from the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona.
